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README.txt
February 23, 2023


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Dataset: 
"Geospatial Dataset of Roads and Settlement Features for the Chesapeake Bay Eastern Shore Region of Maryland, USA, 1865"

Dataverse: 
"The Eastern Shore Underground Railroad Project Data"
(https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/es-ugrr).


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Reference: 
Mennis, Jeremy; Yuen, Kai, 2023, "Geospatial Dataset of Roads and Settlement Features for the Chesapeake Bay Eastern Shore Region of Maryland, USA, 1865", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KPILKU, Harvard Dataverse.


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Description:
Each of the following zip files contains a geospatial vector data layer in ESRI shapefile format:

Bridges: Bridges where roads cross waterways
Churches: Places of worship, including attributes indicating enomination, includign African American churches and Quaker Meeting Houses. 
Ferries: Ferries, including names
Hotels: Hotels
Landings: Landings along waterways, including names
Mills: Mills, including mill type (e.g. saw, grist, etc.)
Roads: Road network
Schools: Schools
Shops: Shops, including shop type (e.g. blacksmith, merchant)
Towns_CH: Towns, named by a courthouse
Towns_Minor: Towns, named but not otherwise marked as a courthouse or post office
Towns_PO: Towns, named by a post office


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Data sources: 
All layers except for the roads were derived from digital geoTIFFs of individual atlas pages of the historical maps contained in "Martenet, Simon J., Martenet�s Map of Maryland: Atlas Edition, Simon J. Martenet, Baltimore, 1866" acquired fromt eh David Rumsey Map Collection (https://www.davidrumsey.com/). Map legend information was derived from "Martenet, Simon J., Map of Maryland, (1865)." Roads data were derived from the vector street centerlines data acquired from the from the Maryland Department of Transportation (https://data.imap.maryland.gov/).

Methods: 
Contemporary digital roads data were visually overlaid with the historical atlas maps in the ArcGIS Pro (ESRI, Inc.) Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software package. Contemporary roads which were consistent with roads in the historical maps were extracted as a representation of the historical road network. Point features (i.e. churches, schools, etc.) were manually digitized from historical maps using the roads data as a framework data set and attributed (e.g. church denomination) where appropriate. Roads and point feature data were reviewed and edited for positional and attribute accuracy.


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Spatial reference information: 
All shapefiles are in North American Datum (NAD) 1983 Maryland State Plane


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Contact:
Jeremy Mennis
Department of Geography and Urban Studies
Temple University 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
jmennis@temple.edu

